Views and analysis of Chinese politics and policy from inside China, outside the Beijing and Shanghai beltways

Tuesday, 8 August 2017

Nanjing Cracks Down On Share-Bikes--And Finds A Larger Problem

This past weekend, Nanjing authorities announced that
the city was stopping any more share-bike companies from setting up operations,
and that it would be ratcheting up supervision of those already in place.

Nanjing wasn’t the only city that declared a pause in the
share-bike situation during the past weekend. Even central government
authorities weighed in, issuing a guidance directive
imploring relevant agencies to better regulate and manage the industry [关于引导和规范互联网租赁自行车发展的意见].

But Nanjing had been ahead of the curve where bike-sharing was
concerned. It was one of the first cities to set up its own public bike system
and, early on, recognized
when share-bike companies started appearing that coordinating government
agencies would be crucial for making better public policy. Instead of being
heavy-handed with these firms and trying to dictate the terms of trade, Nanjing
officials worked to cooperate with them—at
least for a time, and the model seemed to be working well enough.

But this announcement is more than an adjustment, for now
there are signs of disagreement within Nanjing government circles about what
the real problem with the share-bike system actually is.

For example, in announcing the recent decision, Nanjing’s
major public newspaper Yangtze Evening
Post [扬子晚报] cited the 450,000
shared bikes in the city that created “disorderly parking” [无序停放]
as the major problem.

According to the newspaper, its reporter had learned [者了解到]
there was little chance of a technological solution in the near future, implying
that the sheer number of these bikes were causing “numerous troubles” [不少“麻烦”]
with pedestrian traffic, especially at local tourist sites. The problem of
quantity, the article asserted, had prompted the city’s announcement of a
freeze. There are just too many bikes in Nanjing, not enough space. It’s a
physical problem, the newspaper insists.

But the local Party newspaper Nanjing Daily [南京日报] gave a
very different reason the very next day. It claimed the actual problem had
to do with bike-share companies themselves—that the shortcoming wasn’t physical
but fiscal. Some bike-share enterprises were of dubious financial quality, the
article stated, inattentive to the needs of customers and more focused on
market share and raising revenue. More than a thousand users of one firm in
particular, the article noted, still hadn’t received deposits they made to use
bikes back in March. “The problem of deposit refunds is a long-standing one” [长期存在押金退款难问题],
the paper argued, and should now be seen as financial fraud. Officials, the
article in Nanjing Daily notes, are telling
residents who have yet to receive refunds to contact local law enforcement.

Those are strong words, and they echo what President and
Communist Party leader Xi Jinping said
in late April—that containing financial risk was crucial to economic work
and social stability. Suddenly, what had been presented as a local problem of
parking and traffic management is being cast by at least some officials in
Nanjing as something potentially more onerous.

Whether Nanjing Daily’s
contention is an explanation or a self-criticism--or an appeal for some assistance
from the central government—it’s not comforting. That’s because Nanjing
officials have been able to persuade Beijing that local challenges are best met
locally, solved in-house by the Nanjing government. That's not been an easy argument to make in these days of Xi and hyper-centralisation.

But it’s going to be an impossible argument if
the house itself is divided.